Witch and Wizard: Resistance Ops
by VR Commando ATA
Summary: The second story in my Witch and Wizard series. For those of you reading this, leave some damn reviews!
1. The Battle of Shadowland (Part 1)

**Me: And here's the first chapter of the next story of the Liberation Army Saga.**

**Margo: Is this the comics or the books?**

**Me: Comics. I want to explain the training you get before using it. On with the story!**

**The Battle of Shadowland (Part 1) **

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

"[Just wait. You have all the time in the world kiddo.]" Arcee says from the other end of the line.

Margo looks down the scope of her new sniper, a prototype Widow Anti-Material rifle, and sees her target, a New Order scouting party. She lines the crosshairs up with the CO's head. She takes two deep breathes, and pulls the trigger. The man's head disappears in an explosion of red.

Margo pulls back the bolt, ejecting the spent shell, and pushes it forward, loading the next. She aims at the next No trooper and fires. His left arm, and part of his chest, disappears in an explosion of red. Margo loads the next round and fires again. Her final target dies, lower and upper body being separated, leaving six more No troopers.

Three shots from a different gun, and three more die. Before the remaining three can react, they are killed by a man in black wielding a sword.

"Got 'em mom," Margo says over the comm.

"[I see that, but the reload took to long,]" Arcee says to her unofficial adoptive daughter.

"I'm gonna head back to Garfunkel's."

"[Alright, stay safe.]"

"See you later mom. You to dad," Margo says as she starts climbing down the fire escape. As she is climbing, the escape starts to fall. She waits for it to get closer to the other building before jumping through its window.

"_Hopefully that's the only one of those I have to deal with,"_ Margo thinks to herself as she gets up.

Ten minutes of climbing, jumping over gaps, and avoiding artillery shells later she is walking through the front door of Garfunkel's.

"Hey Margo, you, me, and Maritza are going to the City of Progress," Whit says when he sees her walk in.

"Fine, give me a minute to grab my gear," Margo says as she leaves to get her knife, and stealth pistol. As she starts heading to Emmet's disguise area, the Resistance procurement officer, a teenager named Jack spots her.

"Hey Margo," the kid who calls himself Raider says, "Upgrade and Maker just called, they said they have the prototype for the new Widow in Proto-Beta stage."

"Um…?"

"It means that the gun is built, but not ready for testing."

"Thanks," Margo says as she leaves to find Emmet.

"Margo, over here," Maritza shouts. Margo looks over at the Latina girl and sees her standing next to Emmet.

"So what am I wearing this time?" Margo asks Emmet. The blonde smiles before showing her a navy blue shirt and a purple plaid skirt that goes to her knees.

"Sorry Margo, but this is all I've got right now. The rest is being washed," Emmet says. Margo looks at Maritza, who is wearing a bright blue sweatshirt and jeans.

"_Should have gotten here earlier,"_ Margo tells herself before nodding and taking the clothes to switch into. After a minute Margo comes back wearing the shirt and skirt along with blue socks and black dress shoes.

"You look nice," Whit says. He has changed his appearance to now have black hair and brown eyes. He is wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, brown dress pants, and brown dress shoes.

"Let's just go already," Margo says as they start looking for a portal to the City of Progress. They find one a block away from Garfunkel's.

"Ok, try not to draw attention to yourselves," Whit says as he rams into a random woman.

"Watch where you're going!" she shouts. "Wait aren't you-…?"

"Oh…um…sorry ma'am we're late for an appointment," Whit quickly says as they continue walking.

"Que lio! Way smooth Whit," Maritza says, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, way to 'go unnoticed,'" Margo says sarcastically.

"Oh give me a break," Whit says.

"Hey you three!" someone shouts from behind them. "Let's see some I.D." a N.O. citizen Patrol officer says.

_POV Switch_

I glare at the three goon squad members. Luckily none of them notice as they are focused on Whit's excuse for why we're in a hurry.

"Well that's funny, since there are no rallies scheduled for today," the goon squad leader says to him. "Looks like we got ourselves a few truants, eh guys?"

The two behind him smile. I slip my knife into my hand without them noticing.

"This isn't good," I whisper to Maritza, "we're gonna have to jump 'em."

"Wait I've never-..," she tries to say. She doesn't get to finish since a car behind the goon squad explodes.

"What the hell!?" I say.

"That car just exploded! It could be the work of those deviant kids on the news," Whit says to the goon squad leader.

"Right," he says as we run off.

"Nice job with the car Whit," I say to him.

"It wasn't me," he says.

"_Then who the fuck was it?"_ I question.

After a few minutes we reach the building of science. I laugh inside at that, science is what Maker, Upgrade, and Forge do. What the New Order does is sick, wrong, and a mockery of science.

"Ok, we're here, now how do we get in," Maritza asks, her accent showing.

"I figured Whit would turn us into birds or something," I say, pointing my thumb at him as I do.

"No that's more my sister's specialty," he says. "But I do have an idea," he says looking at a couple of N.O. scientists kissing at a bench.

He points his hands at them and 'attempts' to stealthily remove their I.D. badges. Unfortunately he isn't as subtle as he means to be and yanks them hard enough to draw both scientists' attention.

"What the-…?" one says before Whit slams their heads together, knocking them both out.

"There, now we can walk right in," he says as he holds up the badges. I face-palm as Maritza speaks what I'm thinking.

"One problem, there's only two badges, but three of us," she says.

"So now what, 'One Who Can't Count,'" I say to him.

"Um…guess I'm gonna have-…"

"Don't. I'll just sneak in," I say. _"Let's hope mom and dad's training sessions have been paying off."_

I run over to the side of the building and find a vent. I look around before jumping up and removing the cover. After setting it down quietly, I climb in and start crawling through the vents. Maritza and Whit walk straight through the front entrance. I follow them over head until they reach a door marked with a hazmat symbol. I climb out of the vents as Whit opens the door. What we find inside makes me stand there in shock.

**Me: Well that's it for the first chapter. Next chapter we'll do a bit more of the City of Progress, then the battle of Shadowland. After that we move on to 'Operation Zero,' which will take a couple of chapters.**

**Tweed: Where am I in this?**

**Margo: This story is focused on me…right.**

**Me: Exactly Margo. Now for a couple of new Bios, including Margo's altered bio.**

Name: Margo 'Danforth'

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Master Anarchist **[For details see chapter 6]**

Specialty: Infiltration, long range and melee combat

Image: Clothes are from the comics, physical appearance is from the manga. Combat armor used is Titan armor **[See next chapter for details]**

Notes: Margo is the unofficial adopted daughter of Arcee, Angelica Danforth, and Snake-Eyes. After being forced to kill one of her closest friends, she became hardened to death and killing. A day after their return to Garfunkel's, she (and many other Resistance members) requested to be taught how to use guns and other weaponry. Snake-Eyes has taught Margo how to use any melee weapon she finds (be it a piece of pipe or a sword), Arcee has taught her how to use snipers, and both of them have taught her infiltration techniques.

Preferred Weapon: Widow Anti-Material Rifle (Bolt action)/Black Widow Anti-Material Rifle (Semi-Auto) with Recon scope (advanced sniper scope with several vision modes: Thermal, infrared, night vision, ultraviolet, echo-location, enhancer **[Halo ODST visor mode]**, and predator **[Crysis nano-vision]**; and allows the user to hear conversations happening at higher distances); AP, incendiary, explosive, or Dino-rounds; and recoil dampener.

Name: Jennifer 'Jenny' Lang

Codename: Anarchy

Rank: Army, Lieutenant

Specialty: Communications tech

Image: Arkham Origins: Anarchy suit, V for Vendetta: V's mask. Combat armor used is ODST standard armor **[CELL version of the Crysis multiplayer Nanosuit, only with black and grey digital camo]** only using her mask instead of a helmet. Caucasian skin tone, died purple hair that goes to her shoulders, and grayish-blue eyes.

Notes: Anarchy is one of the Joe's comm. controllers and has a tendency to screw with N.O. city intercoms. She is playful and childish at times, but becomes very serious and focused when she needs to be. She likes annoying New Order communication controllers (i.e. The One Who Makes the News, The One Who Monitors Communication, est.) and playing rock music over their intercoms.

Preferred Weapon: Though she doesn't enter combat often, Jenny's preferred weapon for when she does is an Assault/Combat Bow **[Think the Predator Bow from Crysis 3]**, with a laser sight, a scope, and either: explosive, shock charge, AP, or distance arrows.

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Johnson

Codename: Gambit

Rank: ODST, Sergeant

Specialty: Weapon and Stealth Specialist

Image: Crew cut dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and crescent moon shaped scar running from above right eye to chin. Uses the standard Ghost armor in combat **[Spec Ops CELL armor (the black one)]**.

Notes: Gambit got his code name from the fact that he tends to take huge risks with his life. His main rule is 'don't jeopardize team safety' though, so he only ever risks his own life. He is a member of the Joe's Ghost Battalion, Specter squad.

Preferred Weapon: Twin custom Colt revolvers, each has seven rounds, laser sight under the barrel, ACOG sights, and uses explosive rounds.

Name: Hazel Zhang

Codename: Scorpion

Rank: Navy, Specialist

Specialty: CQC, Stealth

Image: Bright red hair that goes to her upper back and bright green eyes. Japanese physical features (i.e. facial structure, body shape, accent, est.). Armor is the standard Shadow squad armor **[Snake-Eyes' GI Joe Retaliation armor]**

Notes: Scorpion is an extremely skilled assassin. As a member of Shadow squad (Snake-Eyes' personal ninja team) she normally goes on stealth missions.

Preferred Weapon: Melee weapon is a carbon nanofiber spear ended whip. Gun used is a SCARAB with an under barrel shotgun, holographic sight, AP rounds, select fire, and silencer.

Name: Jack

Codename: Raider

Rank: None

Specialty: Requisition

Image: Black hair that looks like a rat's nest, dark blue eyes. Uses Onyx armor in combat.

Notes: The teenager in charge of getting supplies from the Joes for the Resistance. These supplies include items like weapons, ammo, armor, food, water, and clothing. Officially, Jack doesn't have a rank, but considers himself to be an officer.

Preferred Weapon: Jack uses a stun-gun in combat.

Name: Vladimir Shevchenko

Codename: Sub-Zero

Rank: Marine, Master Sergeant

Specialty: CQC, Stealth

Image: Close shaven black hair, ice blue eyes. Uses the standard Shadow armor in combat.

Notes: Vladimir, like Hazel, is a member of Shadow squad, and an extremely talented assassin. Unlike Hazel, he is as much at home killing people quickly and quietly as he is in a full on firefight.

Preferred Weapon: Double bladed fold out sword for melee; and a SCAR assault rifle with ACOG sight, silencer, laser sight, extended mag, AP rounds, and select fire; for his gun.


	2. The Battle of Shadowland (Part 2)

**Me: Welcome back. Next part of the story right here.**

**Trin: So sit down, shut up, and read it.**

**Margo: Keep calm and read their fan-fictions.**

**Me: What are you two doing?**

**Trin: Attempting to Jedi mind trick them.**

**Me: That only works if you're right in front of them. On with the story!**

**The Battle of Shadowland (Part 2) **

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

Maritza almost throws up from the sight in front of us. Inside the room is a lab filled with corpses of innocent people and a couple of brains in jars.

"Madre de dios," Maritza says. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Focus on the computers," I tell her, "we can't help the dead."

I walk over to one of the consoles and start taking it apart and building a stun-gun. As I am doing this the intercoms turn on. Static plays out of them for a second before it starts playing Heaven Knows by The Pretty Reckless. I shake my head as I finish the single use stun-gun I've made. I'm to go to Maritza when the door opens.

"What are you kids doing here!?" a No security guard shouts as he rushes in to attack us.

I duck under his night stick and jab him with the stun-gun. I look up and see Whit fist fighting the guards.

"Whit, stop playing around and finish this," I tell him as I knockout another guard.

"After seeing what these guys did here, I need to let loose on these N.O. bastards," he says to me.

"_Idiot,"_ I think.

"Dodge this wizard," one guard says as he takes out a pistol and shoots Whit.

"_Fuck,"_ I think to myself.

Before I can go see if he's ok, Whit uses his magic to take down the guard that shot him, who also happens to be the last one, and then destroys the lab before collapsing. I run over to him to see if he's alright.

"Whit!?" I shout at him.

"Hold on…I think I can…," Whit says this as he uses his magic on himself. He heals himself right before my eyes.

_POV Switch_

"Whit, I didn't know you could do that," Margo says to him as he gets up.

"Yeah, neither did I," he says. Suddenly Maritza screams.

"Yes I would very much like to test your abilities Mr. Allgood. But for now, I need you to come with me. Quietly if you would, otherwise your friend will cease to be," a large man in a Council uniform says. Next to him is a guard holding Maritza by the arm and with a gun pointed at her head.

Margo puts her hands up for one second, before flicking her wrist and sending her stealth pistol into her hand. Before the guard can react, Margo shoots him in the head. As he falls, she shoots the Councilor.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" Margo shouts.

They run towards the exit, but Margo is stopped by the Councilor grabbing her leg. She sends a quick kick to his face, knocking him out and causing him to release her leg. As they exit the building they run into Wisty.

"Hey guys," she says.

"No time to chat, let's move," Margo says as she grabs Wisty's arm and all but drags her with them.

They find a portal back to Freeland two blocks from the Building of Science. They go through it and find themselves in and old parking garage. Before they can start moving, the sound of a falling artillery shell can be heard.

"Oh shit," Margo says as the four of them duck.

An explosion happens outside and they get up. They make their way to an exit when Margo stops them.

"I know right. Its like they aren't even trying," someone says from around the corner. Margo readies her pistol before peeking around the corner. She sees two Joe soldiers that she doesn't recognize standing in front of a black and grey pick-up truck with a turret **[Like the CELL trucks in Crysis 2 only with digital camo]**. Margo puts her gun down before moving around the corner.

"I mean its not like they-…," the second soldier stops mid sentence when he sees Margo.

"Hey, you four aren't supposed to be here," the first soldier says concern evident in his voice. "This is an active artillery strike zone."

"We need to get back to Garfunkel's," Margo says to them.

"Alright get in," the first one says. "Joker, get 'em back to Garfunkel's."

"You got it Havoc," the second one says as he gets in the driver seat.

Margo motions for the others to follow and they all get in the truck bed, Maritza riding shotgun.

"[Hold on tight, this is gonna be a bumpy ride,]" Joker says as he floors the gas pedal.

Margo looks at Whit and Wisty, who are with her in the truck's bed and nods her head.

"I'm glad you had your pistol," Whit says, "who knows what would've happened if you didn't."

"Thanks Whit," Margo says.

"[Someone needs to get on the turret,]" Joker says suddenly. "[New Order squad right in front of us…crap they have their own truck.]"

Margo instantly shot up and got on the turret. She pulled back the charging handle and lined up the sights with the N.O. truck. She fired a short burst into it as Joker speed past. They hear an explosion from behind them after going by them.

"[Well that could've gone a lot worse, great job Margo.]"

"Thanks Joker."

Joker then proceeded to turn the radio on. At first it was the Joe comm. network, but Joker switched channels.

"[Hello people of Freeland and anyone listening in N.O. territory! This is Anarchy coming at you live. Before we get to the music, I have a few messages,]" Anarchy said. "[For any Resistance groups out there, the Joes have sent you some new tech. Speak to your resident requisition officer for more info. There is a music fest scheduled for next Saturday. From what I've been able to gleam, Disturbed is supposed to be playing there,]" Margo smiled, Disturbed was one of her favorite bands. "[Intel from the City of Progress says that a raid on the Building of Science has rendered an N.O. lab, cough- torture chamber –cough, unusable. Liberators-1, N.O.-0, and now back to the rock.]" Anarchy play Avenged Sevenfold's Shepard of Fire.

"[You kids wouldn't have anything to do with that would you?]" Joker asks playfully.

"Why, what could make you think that Joker?" Margo says jokingly.

"[Call it a hunch. Ok we're here,]" Joker says as he stops the truck. Margo, Maritza, Wisty, and Whit all get out.

"Thanks for the lift Joker," Margo says.

"No problem. Stay safe out there," Joker says as he reaches over and shuts the door before driving back to where they left his partner.

"Let's go see what we got," Margo suggests.

"Sure," Maritza replies. They look at the Allgood siblings for there answers.

"Sorry Margo, we have to go talk to Jamilla," Wisty says as they walk off.

"Guess it's just you and me Maritza."

"Guess so," Maritza says as they walk over to Raider.

"Hey Raider, Anarchy said we got some new stuff?" Margo asked.

"Sure did, one of them is for you specifically," Jack says as he reaches behind him and pulls out a box. "They just got it into testing phase," he says as he hands Margo the box.

She opens it to find the upgraded version of the Widow. She looks closely at it to find that the box has what the rifle is called.

"Black Widow Anti-Material Rifle," Margo read aloud.

"That looks powerful," Maritza said.

"Anything else?" Margo asks as she takes the rifle out and starts adding her usual attachments.

"New armor, enough for everyone," Jack says.

"What is it?" Maritza asks.

"Light Heavy Protection Armor, AKA Titan armor."

"That's an oxymoron," Margo says as she slings the rifle over her shoulders.

"It means its light weight, but the protection it offers is heavy."

"Oh."

"We also got some more SCARABs, M12 Novas, and SCARs."

"No SCAREs or M60s?"

"They said that the M60s were only for base defense since no one is strong enough to lug those around and fire them during combat, and we don't have enough snipers to continuously get SCAREs."

"Makes sense. Give the right weapons to the right people."

"Exactly. Is there something else you need or can I get back to handing these out?"

"That's it for now Jack," Margo said as she and Maritza, who had gotten herself some Titan armor and a Nova pistol, left.

As they were leaving, Whit ran up to them.

"Get ready to move out," he said to them.

"What's going on?" Maritza asked as she finished getting the armor on.

"The One is beginning his invasion of Shadowland."

**Me: That seems like a good place to stop it at.**

**Trin: Now to explain some more stuff right?**

**Margo: Like the Joe's vehicles and the Resistance's weapons and armor.**

**Me: Yep.**

Joe Vehicles:

Truck: L5S Light Assault Vehicle. The Joe standard ground vehicle. It has several variants: transport (Hound, truck bed covered with no gun), assault (Wolf, truck bed covered), combat (Coyote, used by Joker in this chapter), and recon (Fox, variant used by Joker only without a gun).

Tank: M1 Abrams.

Gunship: A10 Gunship (Warthog).

Helicopter (Assault): Apache attack helicopter.

Helicopter (Transport): Black Hawk transport helicopter.

Attack Plane: F16 Phantom.

Dropship: Space shuttle painted with black and grey digital camo (used to deploy ODSTs from low Earth orbit)

Resistance Equipment:

Guns:

Pistol: M12 Nova (Crysis)

Assault Rifle: SCARAB (Crysis)

LMG: SCAR (Crysis) **[They're kids; you don't give them an actual LMGs for their LMGs.]**

Sniper: SCARE (Crysis unused gun **[Semi-Auto SCAR with an extended barrel and scope]**)

Turret: M60 (Crysis) **[This is able to be an LMG, because turrets normally aren't mobile.]**

Armor:

Light: Onyx (Halo ODST Buck's armor)

Medium: Phoenix (Halo ODST Romeo's armor)

Heavy: Titan (Halo ODST Rookie's armor)

Weapon attachments:

ACOG scope (SCAR and SCARE)

Zoom scope (SCARE)

Thermal/Night Vision scope (SCARE)

Holographic sight (SCARAB and SCAR)

Laser sight (Nova, SCARAB, SCAR, and SCARE)

Select fire (SCAR and SCARAB)

Extended mag (Nova, SCARAB, SCAR, and SCARE)

Fore-grip (SCARAB, SCAR, and SCARE)

Silencer (Nova, SCAR, SCARAB, and SCARE)

Grenade launcher (M60)

Shotgun (M60)

Gauss (M60)


	3. The Battle of Shadowland (Part 3)

**Me: Now for the actual Battle of Shadowland.**

**Margo: The New Order's in for a surprise.**

**Me: You can say that again.**

**The Battle of Shadowland (Part 3) **

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

After several minutes of prep, the Resistance curves and three Joe squads were ready for combat. One of those squads was Shadow squad.

"Hey Scorpion," Margo said. "Where's my dad?"

"Your father is with Arcee," she says after holstering her whip. "I believe they are getting the snipers ready."

"Thanks Hazel."

Scorpion goes back to cleaning her SCARAB while Margo goes to check on Maritza. She sees that Maritza has the Nova she got from Jack and a SCARAB holstered on her Titan armor.

"You alright?" Margo asks her.

"I'm fine, I just need to remember the New Order soldiers are going to kill all of us if we don't stop them," Maritza says, looking straight at Margo.

Margo nods her head before grabbing a Nova and a short sword for close up work. Ten minutes later Whit and Wisty come down from the roof and inform everyone of the spell they just cast.

"Well if that's done then let's go," Margo says as she grabs her helmet. The remaining members of the battle group gather up their gear and head for the portals to Shadowland. As they go through the portals, they are greeted by the half-light spies that Wisty and Sasha recruited.

_POV Switch_

I look around at the group. Most of us are in Onyx armor, a few of us are in Phoenix armor, and even fewer in Titan armor. I double check my Black Widow to see if it is working.

"_What better way to test it than in actual combat,"_ I think to myself. I look and Maritza and I can tell she is nervous.

"It'll be ok Maritza," I tell her. Her only response is to nod her head at me.

"Here they come!" one of the Joes say. He readies his rifle, an M16 with an ACOG sight, as the NO troopers start coming through the portals.

"Don't let them get to Freeland!" someone says to my left I look over and see Anarchy readying her bow. She releases the shot and the arrow imbeds itself in the chest of an NO soldier. He looks at it right as it explodes, killing him and the two other NO soldiers next to him.

I take aim with my Widow and pull the trigger. The Anti-Material Rifle's shot guts one NO soldier and decapitates the one behind him. I pull the trigger twice in quick succession and kill three more NO troopers.

"Margo!" I hear Maritza shout.

I spin my rifle to where she is to see her trying to hold off three NO soldiers at once. I shot the one to her left, causing the other two to pause, allowing Maritza to shoot them. Once her adrenaline surge wears off, she throws up. Luckily for her, she hadn't grabbed a helmet. I spin back around to see the Councilor I shot.

"Didn't I shoot you already?" I say as I put a bullet through his head. I turn my rifle a bit more and see my 'grandfather leading a group of NO soldiers towards one of our further portals. "No you don't," I say as I start shooting the soldiers around him.

"[What the hell!? Take out that sniper!]" Rex shouts as he starts running. Suddenly the NO gets reinforcements from their portals.

"Oh shit," I say as Anarchy shows up next to me.

"Yeah, it may be time for a strategic retreat," she says.

"I thought Joe's don't run?"

"We wouldn't be running, we'd be getting reinforcements of our own."

I shrug and go back to shooting. Anarchy is about to fire another arrow, when we hear a moan from behind us. Anarchy and I look at each other before spinning around to see an army of Lost Ones.

"Do guns work on them?" I ask nervously.

"I don't know," she says raising her bow.

I'm about to fire when I notice something strange. The Lost Ones were completely ignoring us and going ape shit on anyone wearing a breach device.

"Am I dreaming or are they ignoring us?" Anarchy asks me.

I look at her and shrug my eyes still wide in shock of what's happening in front of us. I continue to watch the Lost Ones and see the answer to my earlier question. One NO soldier empties his mag into one of the Lost Ones and it killed him before continuing on.

"I'm thinking we can leave now," I say as I notice the entire NO invasion force retreat through their portals.

"I think you're right," Anarchy says before ordering a retreat of our forces.

I get up and sling my rifle over my shoulder, which now that the adrenaline has worn off, hurts like hell.

"_Damn the recoil on this thing sucks,"_ I think to my self as I go through one of our portals. I look around to see that I'm in front of the old library, several miles away from Garfunkel's.

"SON OF A BITCH!" I shout into the air as I start walking towards Garfunkel's. Two hours later I'm walking through the front door of Garfunkel's, my shoulder no longer sore.

"Hey Margo, where've you been?" Wisty shouts with a smile on her face.

I finally take the time to look around and find that there is a victory celebration going on.

"Walking back here," I say as I take off my helmet, collapse on the couch, and close my eyes.

"Well at least you're alright kiddo," I hear my mother say.

I open my eyes to see her standing over me with a piece of cake in her hands. I take the cake from her and start eating. I see Wisty toying with Byron off to my left. I look around and notice that I don't see Whit anywhere. I shrug and then catch sight of Maritza standing by herself. She sees me and walks over.

"You took you're time getting here," she says smiling at me.

"Ha, ha, very funny, you try walking all the way here from the library," I say to her with cake still in my mouth.

"So how did the Black Widow work out for you?" my mom asks.

Suddenly my shoulder is sore again.

"The recoil hurts like hell. Upgrade needs to fix that," I say to her, causing Maritza to laugh.

I glare playfully at my friend. She then hides her smile with her hand.

"I'm sorry Margo, but that's hilarious," she says as she fixes her glasses.

I shake my head at her before continuing to eat. I finish eating as mom says she needs to go back to base. I hug her before she leaves and go to my room in Garfunkel's to switch out of my armor. I put on my usual blue t-shirt and black pants. I look around for the chain before I find it next to purple jacket. I put both on before putting on my combat boots.

I go back outside to find that Whit and Wisty are on the roof, and Anarchy is talking to Jamilla, our current ambassador for the Joes, about setting up a direct communications link to both our bases. I also find that Maritza is heading to the Joe training post to learn how to use a SCAR. I smile and decide to go with her.

**Me: Well that's it for the Battle of Shadowland ark. I decided that I'm gonna do a few in between chapters before I get into the Operation Zero ark.**

**Margo: You aren't gonna turn into one of those people who has everyone live are you?**

**Me: God no. Wars have casualties, but they're gonna mostly be Joes.**

**Maritza: I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.**

**Me: I think it's a good thing.**


	4. Maritza's First Patrol

**Me: And here's the first filler chapter. Maritza, I hope you're ready.**

**Maritza: Um…for what?**

**Margo: Oh, no reason. On with the story!**

**Me: HEY! That's my line.**

**Maritza's First Patrol **

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

"So now that you've got the minimum training in using the SCAR, you're going on patrol with me," Margo says.

Maritza looks at her to see that Margo is wearing her Titan armor, with her Widow over her shoulder, since her Black Widow is still getting the recoil dampening upgrades, and her helmet clipped to her side.

"Wait, what?" Maritza says, a little worried.

"Don't worry it'll be fun," she says to me smiling.

"You happen to be doing this to get out of Ambassador of the Week duties would you?" Maritza asks with a smirk before pushing her glasses further up on her nose.

"What, no, why would you think that?" Margo says quickly.

"No reason," Maritza says as she starts putting on her armor.

While she is doing this, she hears Margo mumbling about how she didn't even want the position. Maritza smirks as she takes off her glasses and puts on her helmet.

"We're only going on patrol, you don't need the helmet," Margo says.

"Oh," Maritza says as she also clips her helmet to her side. She fixes her brown hair back into a ponytail before putting her glasses back on.

After grabbing their weapons, Margo and Maritza went out on patrol, Margo leaving Janine in charge until she returned.

"How come we don't have any vehicles? We do have several people who can drive," Maritza said as she and Margo started walking.

"Um…huh, I really don't know."

"Put in a request when we get back."

"I doubt we get any of the armed ones."

Maritza shrugged, _"We could get armed ones."_

"I'll see if we can get some though," Margo said.

Maritza nodded as Margo she started messing with her helmet's radio. A minute later music started playing from it.

"Shouldn't we be quiet?" Maritza asked.

"If anyone is close enough to hear us, then we'd have to shoot them either way," Margo said to her.

"I guess that's true," Maritza said as the music stopped.

"[And that was Enter Sandman by Metallica,]" Anarchy said over the radio. "[Again it's request hour so anyone can call in and request any rock mu-…it seems that we have a call from…The City of Progress,]" Anarchy said. "[Go ahead.]"

"[You Resistance deviants need to surrender now,]" the person said.

"[I'm sorry sir, but that isn't a song, next please,]" Anarchy said as she disconnected the man.

"Hey, play Indestructible by Disturbed," Margo said.

"[You got it,]" Anarchy said as Maritza stared at Margo.

"What?" Margo asked with a smirk as the music started playing.

"Nothing," Maritza said with a smirk.

"Whatev-…what was that?" Margo asked suddenly.

Margo turned off the music, allowing Maritza to hear a group of people heading towards them.

"Take cover," Margo whispers before ducking behind a destroyed wall.

"I'm telling you, I heard something," a NO soldier says as a group of them pass by Margo and Maritza.

Margo looks at Maritza and points to her gun then the No troopers. Maritza nods her head before aiming her gun at the closest soldier. Margo raises her Widow and fires one shot through the head of the furthest soldier. The others troopers started panicking as Margo and Maritza start firing at each of them. One trooper managed to spot them though.

"There they are!" he shouted as he shot back at them.

Margo ducked back behind cover as Maritza fired one last time before ducking. The No soldiers took this chance to find cover for themselves. Margo activated her rifle's thermal vision mode and shot one of the No soldiers through his cover. Just as she readied another shot, one of them threw out a flash-bang grenade. Margo quickly switched to predator vision mode just before it went off. Though that kept her from being effected, Maritza took the full effect of the grenade.

"Crap, I can't see!" she shouted as she pointed her gun towards the No troopers and held down the trigger.

Margo fired through the wall right next to one of the troopers, causing him to jump straight into Maritza's wall of fire. She hit him several times before her mag ran dry. Maritza started blinking, her vision slowly returning. The area turned from the grenades explosion to blobs of color.

"Eye sight's coming back," she said.

She took aim at one of the blue blobs and fired. Maritza was rewarded with a yell from the soldier she had shot. Just as her vision came back, a new order soldier threw another flash-bang. This time she managed to duck before it went off, so only her hearing was affected.

Maritza peeked over her cover to see that there were only two No soldiers left. She was about to tell Margo when she noticed her friend was gone. She looked around, but couldn't find her. She looked back at the No soldiers to see that one was dead and the other was about to shoot Margo. Maritza quickly fired a burst from her rifle before he could. Margo stood up from her crouch, pulling her knife out of the troopers head as she did.

"Thanks Maritza," Margo said to her.

Maritza nodded before holstering her rifle. She went over to the NO soldiers and checked if any of them ammo that was compatible with her SCAR. Only one of them did, and she still had to use her mags to take it.

"Ok, let's finish our patrol and head back to Garfunkel's," Margo said.

Maritza nodded just before suddenly feeling dizzy. Only then did she realize that everything seemed to have been a bit hazy while they were fighting.

"Whoa," Maritza said as she stopped herself from falling over.

"You alright?"

"Yeah…just…give me a minute."

"Just got off your adrenaline rush?"

"That's what that was? I thought everything slows down when that happens?"

"You play to many videogames. That's not how it works, Maritza."

"Oh," Maritza said as they continued walking.

After several more minutes they found a broken New Order artillery gun. Around it were multiple dead NO soldiers. Margo and Maritza looked at each other before grabbing all the guns and ammo they could carry. Even with regular restocks from the Joes, they could never have too much equipment for the Resistance. Margo then turned the music back on to find it playing Perfect Life by Red.

"I think that's all we can hold," Maritza said.

Margo looked at what she had and what Maritza had. In total it was less than a fourth of what was there. She shook her head and Maritza spoke what she was thinking.

"Yet another reason why we need trucks."

"You bet, Maritza. Now let's head back to Garfunkel's."

They began making there way back to Garfunkel's, only having to stop once at a Joe checkpoint. Margo asked why they were stopped and the answer she got was disturbing.

"We've gotten reports of NO soldiers using magic to alter their appearance to that of known Resistance members," the Joe had told her.

They continued walking until they reached Garfunkel's. They dropped the weapons off with Raider and Margo went to switch out of her armor before telling Janine she could go. Maritza stayed at Raider's 'shop,' as he called it, and got some new attachments for her SCAR, and got herself a SCARE.

"_I'm sure sniping isn't that hard,"_ Maritza told herself as she left.

She walked up to the ambassador's office, formerly the manager's office of Garfunkel's, and entered. She found Margo sitting there having just finished a conversation with their supplier in Joe HQ.

"Hey Maritza. Swindle's seeing about getting us some trucks for recon…and attacks," Margo said, a smirk on her face for the last part.

"I still don't trust him with that name," Maritza said.

"Well he always says the Transformers character Swindle was a business 'bot,' as he put it. Also he does tend to swindle his way into getting people the stuff they need."

"Whatever. So do you think we'll get the trucks?"

"Maybe the recon trucks, but attack trucks…I'm a little doubtful," Margo said when the computer screen's incoming 'call' icon flashed. "Margo here."

"Margo, I managed to get you three Hounds, six Foxes, and two Coyotes," Swindle said from his end of the line. "I also managed to get them to accept applicants for helicopter pilot training."

"Nice job Swindle."

"Anytime, just start sending over any possible pilots and once you get at least two, you'll get a single copter."

"You couldn't get us more?"

"I'm a silver-tongued-bandit, not a miracle worker. I did what I could."

"I'll take what I can get."

"Alright, now if that's it, I have some 'customers' from one of the other Resistance bases that I have to talk to," Swindle said as he disconnected.

"Well that went better than I thought," Margo said as she leaned back in her chair.

"I'm actually concerned that they gave us that many vehicles," Maritza said.

"I think it might be so we have them if we need them."

"Guess that's a good idea," Maritza said as she sat down. "So, need help with anything?"

"Yeah," Margo said, "see that stack of paper? Go through it while I go through this one."

Maritza nodded as she and Margo got to work.

**Me: I think that's pretty good for a filler chapter.**

**Margo: Finally we have trucks! Now don't make me lea-…ambassador of the week, ever again.**

**Me: Got it. For those of you reading, leave a review!**


	5. Hit and Run

**Me: One more filler chapter before the Operation Zero ark.**

**Tweed: This chapter will have me and a small group of Resistance members and Joes assaulting a-…**

**Me: NO SPOILERS! Sheesh it's like all of you have a problem with that.**

**Duke: On with the story!**

**Me: Please stop using my line.**

**Hit and Run**

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

"[Two minutes out people,]" the pilot said from the cockpit.

I look around the copter at the squad in front of me; Private James Colson, Nightwing; Specialist Daniel Corvo, Blink; and Francine 'Frankie' Williams, Shadowcat. I look out the open door and see the other copter, that one carrying the Allgood siblings (both in Onyx armor), some kid named Maritza, and Margo. Margo sees me looking at her and decides to contact me.

"[Something wrong Tweed?]" She asks me.

"Yeah," I reply. "Why are you guys here?"

"[Whit and Wisty came across some intel suggesting that their parents may have _been_ here.]"

"Doesn't mean it's a good idea to come along."

"[Well it's to late now,]" she says.

Somehow I know she's smirking under her mask. I turn my attention back to my group and switch to team comms, allowing me to talk to both groups at once.

"Radio silence from here on out, only use hand signals and acknowledgement lights when you aren't close enough to talk," I say to them all. Seven green lights flash, telling me that all of them understand. "Margo, you'll be in charge of team two, or Blue team, as blue one," I tell her before two lights appear and stay on my HUD **[1]**.

Each light having four circles under it. Red team was me and the other Joes, red light, and the Resistance members had the blue light. The top circle for blue team, Margo, flashed green once.

"Maritza, you'll be blue two," the second light under blue team flashed green once. "Whit blue three," third light had a green flash, "Wisty blue four," the fourth light flashed red once. "Wisty what's wrong?" I ask.

"[Sorry, wrong button,]" she says quietly, probably embarrassed.

I shook my head as Wisty's light flashed green, "Get that fixed before we hit the ground."

My team already had their designations, so I didn't have to tell them.

"[Ten seconds!]" The pilot shouted over the comm.

We grabbed our weapons and got ready to repel out of the Black Hawk. Ten seconds went by and we slid down the ropes. When we hit the ground, our weapons were instantly ready. Margo's group, not so much. Margo had her weapon ready instantly, Maritza in a decent amount of time, but Whit and Wisty took to long to get their SCARABs out. Margo looked at me and I pointed down with one finger, then to the reeducation center with two. My team began moving out as Margo told her team what that meant.

"Ma'am, NO patrol, 30 meters," Nightwing said.

I held up a fist ordering the team to stop. I heard them and Margo's team lay down. I kept my fist in the air as I aimed at one of the NO troopers. I pumped my fist once before shooting him. Several silence shots later and the entire NO patrol were corpses.

I waved the teams to follow before getting up and moving towards the base. I had us stop again in front of a sniper tower. I heard a silenced shot and the guard fell to the ground next to me. I turned my head to see Maritza and Margo looking at Whit. I shook my head before getting up and cutting the razor wire fence.

"_Knock, knock,"_ I think to myself as we enter the compound.

I point to Margo and Blink, then point to the sniper tower we just cleared. Margo flashes her light red and then points to Maritza. I flash my light green to her and she nods before tapping Maritza's shoulder and pointing to the tower. She nods and heads up the tower with Blink.

I mark several targets with my HUD and flash my light orange. As I do this, Maritza and Blink's lights flash yellow. I point to a few areas to take cover at and the group hides. As the Patrol gets closer, I mark them and flash my light blue.

_POV Switch_

Margo sees the blue light flash and readies her Black Widow. She takes aim at the trooper to the left and holds her finger right over the trigger. She looks over to see Wisty aim at the patrol.

"_Hopefully she has it on semi-auto,"_ Margo thinks to herself as Tweed's light flashes blue twice, ordering the group to fire. Several suppressed shots later and the Troopers are dead.

Tweed flashes her green light twice and the team moves forward. As they are walking, Margo has an idea. She runs up to Tweed to inform her.

"Tweed," Margo whispers.

"What is it?" She asks, having everyone stop.

"I had a thought; we would need a distraction while we're getting out right?" Tweed nodded her head to this. "How about a little audio assault?"

"That could work," Tweed says, running the scenarios through her head.

"Alright, but don't get carried away," Tweed says.

"So don't contact Anarchy for help with it?"

"Precisely."

They then continued towards the main building. They got to the front door when they had to take cover from a group of NO Troopers. Tweed marked them and flashed her blue light once. Five of the seven remaining lights flashed green. The other two, Maritza and Blink, flashed red. Tweed cursed under her breath. Their sniper cover couldn't get to where they were at. Margo looked at Tweed and pointed to the lights above the Troopers. Tweed flashed her green light and Margo quickly shot out the lights.

"What the fuck?" one of the Troopers said as the Joes and Resistance shot each of them.

Once they were dead the team moved into the facility. Inside they found a long corridor leading into multiple rooms. Suddenly Blink and Maritza's lights flashed green three times. Tweed flashed back a red light twice. She got two green lights in response.

Tweed then marked each of the doors before flashing green twice. There were three doors in front of them, so two people went to each door. Tweed flashed her black light once before breaking down her and Wisty's door. Inside was an empty room. Tweed looked around and noticed that it was a brainwashing room. As she and Wisty were leaving, Margo flashed her green light four times. Tweed flashed green three times in response before she and Wisty started heading to Margo's position. They got to her and Whit's door and found an armory inside.

"This isn't just a reeducation facility, it's a training facility for soldiers," Margo said.

Tweed looked around before flashing her orange light once. Everyone flashed green and began placing charges everywhere. Ten minutes later and everyone flashed green. Tweed nodded before activating the evac waypoint marker and flashing green twice. Tweed looked at Margo, who pointed to the intercom. Tweed flashed her green light once.

Margo pressed a button on the console she was messing with and suddenly Guns 'N Roses' Welcome to the Jungle started blaring from the intercoms. As the group got outside, they saw that every Trooper there was heading for the comm. building, giving the team the perfect opportunity to escape.

They ran for the fence and found Maritza and Blink already waiting for them. They got through the fence as someone started yelling at them to halt. Tweed flashed her orange light twice and Shadowcat pulled out a detonator. As the song ended, she pressed the button. Almost instantly the charges went off, first in the main building, then on the secondary buildings. The shockwave knocked the entire group on the ass. Tweed got up and looked towards where the facility used to be. Al that was there now was a smoking ruin.

"Job done," she said to everyone.

Margo nodded as Maritza high fived her. The Allgood siblings looked at the ground; they hadn't found any evidence of their parents being there.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Margo said as the evac copter appeared off in the distance.

**Me: Well that was fun.**

**Margo: Destroying a New Order facility is always fun. **

**Tweed: And the distraction really helped.**

**Me: The HUD acknowledgement lights I got from Halo. Spartan teams used them when they had to maintain radio silence.**

**Maritza: Those were really useful.**

**Me: Glad you thought so, because I'm gonna use them in future chapters also. Anyway, I've decided to do one more filler chapter.**

**[1]: Light flashes mean the following; 1 Green-Understood/Done/Do it, 2 Green-Move to/Move out, 3 Green-Heading to you, 4 Green-Get here now, 1 Red-Problem, 2 Red-Don't/Can't, 3 Red-Abort mission, 1 Yellow-Incoming, 2 Yellow-Clear move now, 1 Orange-Set explosives, 2 Orange-Detonate explosives, 1 Blue-Targets marked, 2 Blue-Engage targets, 1 Black-Breach and clear (kill all inside), 2 Black-Breach and contain (non-lethal force), 3 Black-Breach and capture (kill all but target).**


	6. New Toys, New Rules, and New Teams (P1)

**Me: Here's the next filler chapter.**

**Wisty: Hey, I'm in this one!**

**Margo: Yes you are Wisty, but not as a major character.**

**Wisty: Oh come on, I am in the books.**

**Me: Do I look like James Patterson to you? Anyway-…**

**Margo: On with the story!**

**Me: What the fuck!**

**New Toys, New Rules, And New Teams (Part 1: Hellions)**

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

Margo looks over at her 'team.' When Sasha got to be ambassador of the week, he made several changes to how the Resistance worked. Most of these changes geared towards militarism. He implemented teams, and a rank system **[1]**, and made everyone get training in how to use up to the SCARAB. Margo was given the rank of Master Anarchist, while Maritza was given the rank of Defiant Anarchist.

"So, names, ranks, and specialties," Margo said.

"Maritza Gutierrez, Defiant Anarchist, strategy and tech specialist," Maritza said.

"John Franks, Chaotic 1, heavy weapons," a kid with red hair and sea green eyes said.

"Penelope 'Penny' Jones, Chaotic Anarchist, medic," a girl with blonde hair and ice blue eyes said.

"Dexter 'Dex' Jones, Chaotic 1, explosives," a boy who Margo assumed was Penelope's twin said.

"Jose Salazar, Deviant 2, scout," a Latino boy with black hair and brown eyes said.

"Jacob Woods, Deviant 1, vehicles," a teenager around Margo and Maritza's age said. He had apparently shaven his head and had dark brown eyes that almost looked black.

"Takashi Kamakura, Chaotic 2, CQB and stealth," a Japanese kid said in the back.

"Conner Harrison, Chaotic 3, combat specialist," a Native American kid said.

"Nikki Johnson, Deviant 3, artillery specialist," an African American kid said.

"Victoria Vladamir, Deviant 1, magic specialist," a girl with a Russian accent said.

"Margo Danforth, Master Anarchist, infiltration and sniper specialist," Margo said to her team.

"So Margo, what are our orders?"

"For now, get to know each other," Margo said.

"Well then I'll start," Conner said. "I'm Navajo, and I am one of the few people in the Resistance who uses a shotgun, a Spas-12 to be precise. Also, I use Phoenix armor in combat."

"I tend to bum rush enemy units, I wear Titan armor in combat, and I use a SCAR with a gauss attachment as my secondary, and a prototype Plasma Pulse Rifle as my primary," John said.

"I don't like when people die on my watch, I wear Onyx armor, and I use a SCARAB with a shotgun attachment," Penny said.

"I like making shit explode. Also I tend to go berserk on anyone who messes with my little sister," Dex said.

"You're only 13 seconds older then me."

"Which still makes me older than you. I also use a SCAR with a grenade launcher attachment and I wear Titan armor."

"Jose and I are like brothers," Jacob said.

"We tend to go everywhere together," Jose said.

"Well, most places anyway. We both wear Onyx armor, but I use a Nova with an extended mag, laser sight, and barrel extension."

"While I use an Uzi with Laser sight, extended mag, fore-grip, extended barrel, holographic sight, and mercury injection rounds."

"I use magic in fight. Good with sniper, English...not good," Victoria said. Margo nodded and then looked at Takashi, who didn't say anything for a minute before Nikki spoke up.

"I've known Takashi since all this shit started, and he doesn't talk much," Nikki said. "He uses a sword and two pistols, and wears Phoenix armor. I wear Phoenix armor and use a SCARAB with select fire, extended mag, fore-grip, laser sight, and holographic sight. You know some people have called me a motor mouth, but I don't think I am. I just tend to speak my mind and whatever comes to it. Like how that is a really cute jacket you have, is there another one of those anywhere in Garfunkel's? And do you really need glasses Maritza or do you-…" Takashi finally stops her by covering her mouth with his hand.

"Thank you Takashi," Margo says. He nods to her in response. "Just so all of you know, our team's name is Hellions." She said as the intercom turned on.

"[Hellions, report to vehicle hanger,]" the Resistance's new come officer said.

"Guess have mission now." Victoria said.

"Ok, let's go," Margo said as she led them to the vehicle hanger. When they got there, they found Byron waving them over.

"Hey, you guys have a mission," he said.

"What's the mission?"

"You're gonna go blow up a NO data facility that's at these coordinates," Byron said as he handed Margo a map. "And I'm coming with you."

"I don't think so," Maritza suddenly said.

"What why?" Byron asked.

"Not that I'm complaining, but I've got to agree with Byron, why aren't we taking him?" Margo asked.

"This is supposed to be our team's first mission right? Then only we should go."

"Can't argue with that. See ya Byron," Margo said with a smirk.

The group got into the trucks and drove off, leaving behind them a stuttering Byron trying to go with them.

"So, which way are we heading?" Jacob asked from the driver's seat.

"Start heading west," Margo said as she looked at the map.

"You got it boss," Jacob said as he turned left.

Ten minutes of driving later, they were near the NO facility. Maritza got out of the truck she had driven there and walked up to Margo. Margo had already pulled out her sniper and was looking over the facility.

"See anything interesting?" Maritza asked her.

_POV Switch_

I look through the scope of my Widow Rifle. Through it I see several NO Troopers **[2]**. I switch it to predator vision and see multiple heat signatures inside the building itself. I look at Victoria and she nods at me before looking back through her SCARE's scope.

"Multiple targets inside, just a few outside," I say to her as I put the rifle down.

"So what's the plan Margo?" Nikki says. "Cause I-…"

Takashi stops her before she can get going. I nod my thanks before marking the east entrance and flashing my green light twice. I get ten green flashes in response. I look at Vicky and point to a sniper post at the edge of the base. I mark it for her and flash my blue light once. She aims at the Trooper stationed there and I flash the blue light twice. A single suppressed shot happens and the Trooper falls dead. I flash my green light twice to her and she heads there.

"_Good, now we'll have over watch,"_ I think to my self.

I hear something coming from Vicky's comms. I listen to it closely and I find out its humming. I listen to it for a bit longer and realize it's the Russian national anthem. I flash my red light at her once. She turns her head and I tap my helmet. She stops humming and rubs the back of her helmet before her comms turn off.

I shake my head before we begin moving out again. Nikki runs up next to me to try to say something. I hand sign shut up at her and then notice her visor is depolarized. I tap my visor once and she raises an eye brow at me.

"You're visor is depolarized," I tell her. She blushes and suddenly her visor turns pitch black.

I turn back around and continue moving forward. Suddenly Vicky's light flashes yellow once. My squad scrambles for cover as we see a small Trooper patrol heading towards us.

"So, do you think that the Major will every get replaced?" one of them asks another.

"Major Danforth?" the one behind the first two asks. My fists instantly clench at my grandfather's name.

"Yeah him."

"Doubt it," the other front one says.

"He's the best officer the One has under his command."

"Yeah, but I heard this guy may be better than him."

"Who, Lieutenant Peirce?"

"Yeah that's him," the third one says as they pass us.

"I'm all but certain that he isn't better than the Major. Now some of the Captains in the N.O.P.E…"

"Yeah," the first one says as they stop.

They're still to close for us to move so I mark them and flash my light blue once. Ten green lights flash and I wait two seconds before flashing my light blue twice. Three muffled shots later and the patrol is just a few of corpses. I flash my light green twice and my team is moving again.

"_I don't think I'll ever get use to saying or thinking that,"_ I think to myself as we stop in front of a gate.

I think about it for a second before sending Jacob and Nikki back to the trucks. When we head back, it would be better if the trucks could come and pick us up half way instead of having to run that far and hope not to get shot as we do.

I double check that my rifle is ready before marking the Guard in the left post and aiming at the one in the right post. I breathe in and out once before firing.

**Me: Done with this chapter.**

**Margo: You made my squad…**

**Me: Different?**

**Maritza: I think she was gonna say weird.**

**Margo: I was gonna say a little psychotic, but that works to.**

**Me: Anyways, here are the bios for Margo's squad.**

Name: Maritza Gutierrez

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Defiant Anarchist

Specialty: Strategy and tech

Image: Physical appearance is from the comics. Uses Titan armor in combat.

Notes: Maritza has become Margo's right hand woman. They are rarely seen on separate missions, and are now the leaders of Hellions, with Margo being the CO and Maritza being the XO.

Preferred weapon: SCAR with ACOG sight, extended mag, incendiary rounds, fore-grip, and select fire.

Name: John 'Johnny' Franks

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Chaotic 1

Specialty: Heavy weapons

Image: Caucasian skin tone with red hair and green eyes. Uses Titan armor in combat.

Notes: John is one of the few Resistance members who uses an under barrel weapon on his gun. He is also one of the few that has permission to use experimental weapons.

Preferred weapon: Primary: experimental Type 1 Plasma Pulse Rifle with holographic sight. Secondary: SCAR with gauss attachment, ACOG scope, AP rounds, and select fire.

Name: Penelope 'Penny' Jones

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Chaotic Anarchist

Specialty: Combat medic

Image: Caucasian skin tone with blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and a scar on the right side of her face that is shaped like an x. Uses Onyx armor in combat.

Notes: Penny is the twin sister of Dex, but accepts that he calls her 'little sister.' She has an obsession with dragons and actually got a tattoo of blue dragon in the center of her back. She has gotten the nick name 'dragon girl' because of this.

Preferred weapon: SCARAB with under barrel shotgun, Talon rounds, holographic sight, dual type laser sight (has a spread shot laser and a precision laser), and select fire.

Name: Dexter 'Dex' Jones

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Chaotic 1

Specialty: Demolition

Image: The same as Penny, except the scar is on the left side of his face. Uses Titan armor in combat.

Notes: The Hellions' demo expert, and the twin brother of Penny. Though they are twins, he commonly refers to her as his 'little sister.' Like his sister, he has an obsession with dragons, but he has a tattoo of a red dragon instead of a blue one.

Preferred weapon: SCAR with under barrel grenade launcher, ACOG scope, select fire, explosive rounds, and a laser sight.

Name: Jose 'Joe' Salazar

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Deviant 2

Specialty: Scout/Recon

Image: Latino with black hair and brown eyes. Uses Onyx armor in combat.

Notes: Jose is used to getting called Joe by most people, and has stopped trying to correct them. He tends to be sarcastic and joking about life and death situations.

Preferred weapon: Uzi with laser sight, extended mag, fore-grip, extended barrel, holographic sight, and mercury injection rounds.

Name: Jacob 'J' Woods

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Deviant 1

Specialty: Mechanic and pilot

Image: Caucasian skin tone with shaven brown hair and dark brown eyes that are nearly black. Uses Onyx armor in combat.

Notes: Jacob views Conner as a brother, and has a tendency to steal things. Most of what he steals is to fix their vehicles though. He is also one of four people in the Resistance who passed helicopter training.

Preferred weapon: M12 Nova with an extended mag, laser sight, stun rounds, and barrel extension.

Name: Takashi Kamakura

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Chaotic 2

Specialty: CQB and Stealth

Image: Japanese with black hair and dark blue eyes. Uses Phoenix armor in combat.

Notes: Tends to keep to himself, and keeps quiet. Takashi only ever talks when he has to, and not always when someone asks him a question. He has been trained by Snake-Eyes in how to use a sword.

Preferred weapon: Primary: Carbon nanofiber short sword. Secondary: dual M12 Novas with extended mags, laser sights, pistol variant ACOG scopes, and suppressors.

Name: Conner Harrison

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Chaotic 3

Specialty: Combat and weapons

Image: Native American with black hair and blue eyes. Uses Phoenix armor in combat.

Notes: Conner is considered strange, even by his team's standards. He tends to talk to himself as if he was multiple people. Several people have commented on this and he always responds that he is 'talking to the dead.'

Preferred weapon: Spas-12 with spread shot laser sight, holographic sight, extended mag, fore-grip, and prototype rebound shot rounds.

Name: Nikki Johnson

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Deviant 3

Specialty: Artillery

Image: African American with shoulder length black hair that has pink highlights **[Like Nudge in the Maximum Ride manga]**, and caramel brown eyes. Uses Phoenix armor in combat.

Notes: A motor mouth with a knack for precision artillery strikes. Nikki will be quiet when using Artillery, or when asleep, but in most other instances she will not stop talking.

Preferred weapon: SCARAB with shock rounds, select fire, extended mag, fore-grip, laser sight, and holographic sight.

Name: Victoria 'Vicky' Vladamir

Codename: None

Rank: Resistance, Deviant 1

Specialty: Magic

Image: Russian with silver hair and grey eyes. Uses Phoenix armor in combat.

Notes: Tends to keep to herself, but will gladly speak her mind on any issue. She hates the New Order for outlawing everything she cared about, magic in particular, and likes destroying any of their important facilities.

Preferred weapon: SCARE with Recon and zoom scope, laser sight, dual mag, ballistic CPU, and streamline rounds (designed to be more aerodynamic than normal bullets).

**[1]: Resistance ranks are as follows:**

**(Private, Grades 3-1)**

**Deviant 3 (D1)**

**Deviant 2 (D2)**

**Deviant 1 (D3)**

**(Sergeant, Grades 3-1)**

**Chaotic 3 (D4)**

**Chaotic 2 (D5)**

**Chaotic 1 (D6)**

**Chaotic Anarchist (Staff Sergeant) (D7)**

**Defiant Anarchist (Master Sergeant) (L1)**

**Master Anarchist (Sergeant Major) (L2)**

**Novice Defiant (Lieutenant Commander) (L3)**

**Command Defiant (Captain) (L4)**

**Master Defiant (Lieutenant Colonel) (L5)**

**(Colonel)**

**Hellion (L6)**

**(General)**

**Liberator (L7)**

**[2]: New Order soldiers will be referred to as Troopers from now on.**


	7. New Toys, New Rules, and New Teams (P2)

**Me: Here's the next chapter.**

**Trin: Anyone seen my drumsticks?**

**Me: Using 'em to fuck with Wisty.**

**Trin: That's a dick move…but hilarious.**

**Me: On-…**

**Trin: On with the story!**

**Me: Oh come on!**

**New Toys, New Rules, And New Teams (Part 2: Breaking In)**

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

The first one dropped from my shot, and Vicky killed the other. I got up and pointed to the gate. My team nodded and moved to cover the checkpoint. I flashed my light black once and got seven green flashes in return. Johnny threw in a smoke grenade before activating his helmet's thermal vision, causing the visor to turn red at its edge **[1]**. Johnny came back out a minute later.

"Area clear," he whispered.

I nodded to him before flashing green twice. We again continued towards the base. A few minutes later we came into a clearing and got a good sight of the NO facility. What Vicky and I saw from back at the trucks only said if the NO had any Troopers here. What we could now see was that the facility was a factory. Out the hanger style doors would roll tanks that parked in a lot filled with the war machines.

"We need to blow this place sky high," Penny said.

"What ever we do, it has to be fast enough to where they can't send a tank after us," Maritza said to my left. I looked through my scope to try and find anything we could use. I activated the enhancer mode and saw the perfect place. All the tanks were being hooked up to a fueling station, a single incendiary round or pyro-explosive detonation would start a chain reaction that would destroy each of the tanks.

I looked at Maritza, and she had the same idea. I marked the station and flashed orange once. The team responded with six green lights and one red light. The red light was Takashi's. I looked at him and he pointed to a watch tower. I looked at it and saw that it had perfect view of the station. I looked around and saw that three other towers were the same way.

"_Fuck,"_ I thought to myself as I started thinking of a new plan. Maritza came up with one before I could think of one.

"We could detonate an explosive inside the facility," she said. I looked at her for an explanation. "I bet that all those Troopers down there have orders to check out anything like that. If we distract them with that, it should give Dex enough time to place some charges on the station."

"That could work," I say after thinking about it.

"Here's the kicker though, he would have to move fast, place the charges in under a minute."

"Think you can do it?" I ask as I turn to face Dex.

"Set some charges in under a minute, on an exposed station, and put them where they can't see them? All without being detected? Sure, no problem," he says with a shrug.

I turn back around and look at the facility. Now I just have to come up with a plan for getting inside. I look around for a bit before spotting something we could use.

"Maritza, is that what I think it is?" I ask her.

"Some sort of pipe from inside the factor? Then yes, it is what you think it is," she replies after looking thorough her binoculars.

"Ok, we have our way in," I say to the team before marking it.

"Time for some fireworks," Dex says as I flash my light green twice.

I get up and start moving towards the pipe I marked. We get close to an inner fence when Vicky's light flashes yellow. We take cover as the Troopers pass. We wait a few seconds and Vicky flashes yellow twice. I flash green once in response. The team gets up and we start heading towards the pipe.

We reach it without any other incidents and I climb in first. I look around in the pipe, but I can't see anything. I active my visor's night vision, turning the edge green and look around again. I look behind me and point to my visor, telling the team to activate their night vision. Several dark green flashes occur, and they nod their heads. I nod back before turning back around and moving forward.

After several minutes of crawling, we reach a sealed door in the pipe. I motion for every one to stop before switching the visor to thermal mode. I look around in the direction of the door, but I don't see any Troopers. I start twisting the lock mechanism to open the door. About halfway through it we hear something coming from the other end. I look that way to see a wall of red heading towards us. My eyes widen as I start turning the handle faster. I finish turning it and the door flies open.

"OUT NOW!" I yell as everyone scrambles through the door.

Penny goes through as I turn back around to see the wall of red all but on top of us. I dive through the door as a flames shoot past. They would have roasted us to if Dex hadn't slammed the door shut. I turn off my thermal vision as I'm laying on the ground.

"That was to close," Maritza says as Dex seals the door.

"Nice form on the dive, I give it a 9.5, but the landing was horrible, 3.2," Joe says as Penny slugs him in the shoulder.

"Let's move before more surprises show up," I say as I pick myself up off the ground.

"You got it boss lady," Dex says as we start moving again.

We opened the door just as a group of Troopers rounds the corner. The thing that saved us from being found out is how they hesitated when they saw us. It gave me and Takashi time to shoot them. Once they were dead, we hid the bodies in the pipe. I went to thermal vision and saw another wall of flames coming.

"Let's move," I said as the scent of burning flesh hit my nose. I gagged a bit before we started moving again.

A few minutes of walking around in circles we found the perfect place for the charges. It was a main area with multiple rooms to hide the charges. Dex started handing out the explosives for everyone to plant. I finished planting my charge as a few people walked into where I was. I quickly hid under a desk as the people who walked in stopped and stood around.

_POV Switch_

Margo stayed as quiet as she could as the New Order Troopers talked.

"So, you guys heard about the new tank modifications yet?" on asked as he opened a drawer and took out a few papers.

"Yeah, how supposedly now the only way to take them down is to get inside of them," one replied.

"_Or ignite their fuel,"_ Margo thought as she activated her visor's thermal vision.

She turned her head to see three Troopers looking at something and one other leaving the room. She decided that listening to the conversation would be a good idea.

"Damn, that looks impressive," one Trooper commented about the papers they were looking at.

"Brand new birds and we were given the privilege of making them by the One who Makes New Weapons herself **[2]**," the first one said.

"Yeah…wait _her_self?" the second one asked.

"Yeah, apparently she impressed The One Who is The One with a vehicle design that outmatched everything that the other applicants were making."

"Damn, and here I thought women weren't good for anything like that."

"I know, it shocked the One for a second before he started smiling, _smiling_ can you believe that!?"

"She got him to smile at her work? Who the fuck is this wo-…wait you're talking about it like you were there personally, why is that?"

"I wasn't, but my _sister_ was."

"You're family is now in the Council of Ones!? That's impressive?"

"So these designs are your sister's?" the third one finally said in a very monotone voice.

"Yep."

"To bad genius does not run in your family," the third one said again, still without emotion.

"Yeah-…wait what!?"

"You heard me," the third one said as Margo deactivated her thermal vision and peeked over the desk. The first and third one looked like they were about to fight, and the second one had his back to her. She pulled out her suppressed pistol and took aim at the one with his back to her. She counted to three in her head before pulling the trigger. Upon seeing their comrade fall, both of the ones fighting turned towards Margo.

As the first one was turning, she shot him and moved to shoot the second one, who was pulling out his pistol. Margo quickly pulled the trigger of her gun twice, both rounds going through the head of the Trooper. Before Margo could relax, the fourth Trooper burst back in, his rifle already drawn. She didn't have time to lift her pistol back up and he already was aiming at her head.

Before he could pull the trigger though, a sword went through his back and chest. The sword was pulled back out as the dead Trooper fell, revealing Takashi standing there, blood dripping from his sword.

"Thanks Takashi," Margo said. The response she got was a quick nod from Takashi.

He left and she was about to follow when she remembered what the Troopers were talking about. She quickly went over to where they had been looking over the papers and saw diagrams for weapons and vehicles.

"_Forge and Maker would be interested in these,"_ Margo thought to herself as she grabbed the documents.

She then followed Takashi to the others. They were waiting for her at a door leading to the outside. She nodded to them as Maritza walked up to her.

"Ready when you are Margo," Maritza said before raising her SCAR.

"Let's go," Margo says as she opens the door.

**Me: Well that went well.**

**Trin: WENT WELL!? THAT BITCH SET MY DRUMSTICKS ON FIRE BEFORE TOSSSING THEM AT YOU!**

**Me: Glad to see you're concerned about me also.**

**Trin: I'm not, I'm only concerned about my drumsticks. Your thick skull might have made things worse.**

**Me: That's mean sis. Here's some needed data.**

**[1]: Visors have four (4) vision modes:**

**Thermal (red edge)-Pros: Able to see number of troops in an area, allows for better sight in dark. Cons: Gravely affected by flash-bangs and high heat signatures (i.e. fires, furnaces, explosions, est.).**

**Night Vision (green edge)-Pros: Allows complete visibility in darkness. Cons: Gravely affected by flash-bangs and high light emitters (i.e. spot lights, flash lights, est.).**

**Ultraviolet (purple edge)-Pros: Allows complete visibility in darkness, can see through smoke screens, fog, and anything like those, unaffected by flash-bangs or items that effect other visor modes. Cons: Only given to Spec Ops teams.**

**Standard-Pros: Allows ability to see allied troops at any moment using IFF transponders. Cons: No special sight upgrades.**

**[2]: Put it this way to show another difference between NO America and our America.**


	8. New Toys, New Rules, and New Teams (P3)

**Me: Ok, back to the story.**

**Whit: Three parts, I think this is a new record for you.**

**Emmet: Anyone see what happened to the purple hair die? Jammie's been asking for it.**

**Me: Check with Anarchy.**

**Byron: On with the story!**

**Me: I will kill you.**

**Byron: +Cowers in corner+**

**New Toys, New Rules, New Teams (Part 3: Bunker Busters)**

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

The team walked outside to find to see no one near them. Margo looked around for a second before marking the station and motioning for Dex to get ready. Dex flashed green before heading towards the station. The rest of the group went to the fence. Once they had reached it, Margo flashed orange twice. Margo had a feeling that Dex was smiling beneath his helmet. Two seconds after she flashed 'detonate,' the explosives in the facility went off.

Dex must have found a good spot as parts of the building started to collapse. The snipers in the tower instantly turned there spot lights onto the building as Troopers on the ground started running towards the building.

Margo went through the hole in the fence before looking towards Dex's location. She saw him finish putting the charges before running back. His light flashed green once as the spot lights went back to where he had just been. He made it back to them without anyone noticing.

"So, am I good, or am I great?" he asked.

"Let's just go before they find us," Margo said as they continued running.

Ten minutes of nonstop sprinting later, and they met up with Nikki and J. J waved them over as the group slowed down. Margo looked around and spotted Vicky starting to slow down to their left.

"Leave now, _da_?" she asked.

"Not quite yet," Margo said as she looked at Dex. "Blow it Dex."

"Boom, boom, mother fuckers," the demolition expert said as he triggered the explosives.

A mushroom cloud appeared at where the factory was. Margo smirked as she got into one of the trucks.

"Move out!" she shouted as everyone else got into the trucks.

An hour of driving later and they were parking the trucks inside Garfunkel's. They got out and found Byron still standing there. Johnny, Penny, Nikki, Conner, and Joe just walked past him. The only ones from the group still standing there were Maritza, Dex, Takashi, J, Margo, and Vicky.

"So, how was your team's first mission? A failure I assume, since you didn't have me to get you in," Byron said.

"Actually weasel face, we succeeded," Margo said.

"Nothin' left of that base, but a smoking crater," Dex said. "I made sure of that."

"What? But…how did you get in?"

"It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that much," Margo said before leaving.

The team looked at each other before following Margo. Vicky stopped in front of Byron as she was passing him. She looked at him for a second before asking a question.

"Why we-zal face?"

"Don't ask," Byron responded as he walked off. Vicky shrugged before running to catch up to the team.

"I think that was great for a first team mission," Maritza said as Vicky caught up to them.

"Hell yeah! We kicked their asses and proved that we're just as dangerous as the Joes!" Dex shouted into the air as he and J high-fived.

"Whoa, easy there Boomer, this was only one mission," Penny said to them.

"Penny is correct. Though we were successful this time, it is not certain that we will win every mission," Takashi said suddenly, causing most of the group to jump.

"No do that!" Vicky shouted as she punched him in the arm. His only reaction was to look at his arm and then raise an eyebrow at her.

"He does have a point though," Nikki said. "We won that time, but we might not win next time, or we might lose people next time. Of course we could just continually succeed, but that's not very likely. I mean come on, when was the last time you heard of a military squad winning every engagement they went into? I don't know about you, but I have-…" Takashi again stopped her by covering her mouth.

"Thank you Takashi," Maritza said.

"Still, the N.O. won't see us as a threat for a while," Margo says as she stops in front of a new door. "When the hell did this show up?"

"The Joes built it for us," Sasha says as he comes down the stairs. "It's your team's ready room."

"Meaning?"

"It's where you put your weapons and armor when you aren't using them."

"Ok then," Margo says as she enters the room.

Inside are several lockers with the name of every member of the team. Margo walks to her locker and looks inside. She finds it has her clothes and a few of her things inside of it. She then starts taking off her armor and switching into her normal clothes as everyone does the same. Margo looks over at her team to see what they look like out of their armor.

Conner is wearing faded jeans that are slightly torn, black and grey sneakers, and a t-shirt that has a guitar on it. Vicky is wearing her hair in a ponytail similar to Maritza's, camo cargo pants, the armor's boots, and a red hoodie. Joe is wearing an open grey vest over a black shirt, blue tennis shoes, and camo pants. Johnny has on an old aviator's jacket, brown boots, and black pants.

Nikki has a pink skirt over black skinny jeans, knee high Converse shoes, and a black jacket over a pink shirt with the word queen on it. J put on an old pair of jeans, a grease stained grey shirt, and a pair of red and white sneakers. Takashi grabs a dark grey hoodie and puts the hood on, a pair of grey jeans, and grey sneakers.

Dex and Penny wear almost the same thing. Dex grabs a black long sleeve shirt with a red dragon on it, a pair of jeans that have a few small holes, and red and black boots. Penny wears the same clothes with different colors. The dragon for her is blue on a white shirt, and blue and white sneakers.

"You guys really do love dragons," Conner said as he put his gun in his locker.

"That we do," Penny says as she examines her SCARAB before putting it in her locker.

"They were real thousands of years ago," Dex says as he removes the attachments from his SCAR before putting everything in his locker.

"That just myth," Vicky says as she begins cleaning her rifle.

"It's not a myth, its true."

"Whenevery."

"It's _whatever_, Vicky," Penny says, causing the Russian girl to blush from embarrassment.

"Oops."

Margo shakes her head before she finishes disassembling her Widow. She decides to bring her Black Widow here also and heads to her room. She finds the semi-auto Anti-Material Rifle sitting on her bed. She grabs it and decides to have a bit of target practice. Margo picks up a few empty soda bottles and heads to the roof. When she gets up there, she finds Whit writing in his journal. She sets her things down loudly to get his attention.

"Oh, hey Margo. What's up?" he asks her.

"Just gonna shot a few bottles. Thought you might want to know since you night freak out otherwise," Margo says with a smirk.

"I would not."

"Yes you would buddy," she says as she readies her rifle. "Hey, Whit. Think you could toss a few good ones for me to shoot?"

"Sure," he replies before grabbing one of the bottles.

"Pull!" Margo shouts as Whit throws it in a perfect spiral.

It gets a ways out before Margo decides to shoot it. She pulls the trigger and is rewarded by the familiar boom of the rifle. The bottle suddenly explodes into tiny shards of glass.

"Nice throw," Margo says as she readies for another shot.

"I was the star quarterback," Whit says as he grabs another bottle.

"Yeah, yeah. Pull!"

Another boom and that bottle exploded.

"Come on Whit, give me a hard one," Margo says as Whit picks up another bottle.

He takes a few steps back and cocks his arm. He moves forward again and throws the bottle as he does. Another boom and another bottle is destroyed. They continue to do this for five more minutes before Margo runs out of bottles.

"Pull!"

"Um…you're out."

"What? Really?"

"Really."

"Ok, let's just head back inside," Margo says as she turns around and spots another bottle. "Or throw one more."

Whit picks up the discarded bottle and throws. As Margo pulls the trigger, Janine walks through the door to the roof. The rifle's boom causes her to jump and trip over a discarded box. Whit ran over to check on her as Margo started laughing.

"Sorry Janine, I didn't know you were coming up," Margo says after catching her breath.

"It's ok, nothing broke but me," Janine says as Whit helps her get up. "I actually came up to tell you something."

"What?"

"The Joes got wind of what your team did. They're making you honorary, though low level, Joes."

"Are you serious?"

"Well…sort of. They said the only way for you guys to get Spec Ops gear would be for you to be Joes. So I asked if they could make you Joes, and they said yes, but you aren't official Joes."

"Well its better than nothing," Margo said as she picked up her rifle.

"Upgrade is downstairs upgrading your gear. He said something about you not getting the actual Joe armor since our armors are a way to say who we are."

"Guess he has a point, I'm just happy my team is getting the Ultraviolet visor mode. Quick question, did they say we needed codenames?" Margo asked.

"I don't think so," Janine replied before heading back downstairs.

"_Finally got it,"_ Margo thought to herself. Her mother had told her how useful Ultraviolet was, and she immediately wanted the upgrade. Now, not only did she have it, but her entire team had it. This day just kept getting better and better.

**Whit: So you made Margo and her team 'Junior Joes' because?**

**Me: Helps out with an idea I had for the second book.**

**Sasha: Why did you have me make the Resistance more militaristic?**

**Me: Seemed fitting.**


	9. Operation Zero (Part 1)

**Me: And here's the Operation Zero ark.**

**Whit: Ok, what the hell is Margo gonna be doing, she didn't go with us.**

**Me: I'll say this, big ass firefight.**

**Sasha: On with the story!**

**Me: Really!?**

**Operation Zero (Part 1: Wisty's Meeting)**

"We are the Joes." Talking

"_This could be useful." Thinking_

"[Welcome to Anarchy radio!]" Radios/Comms/Video Screens/Listening Devices

I take aim at the target and fire. The recoil sends a slight shock through my bones, and the boom sounds as the round is sent at near sonic speed into the target. It disappears in an explosion of chips and paint.

I get up as I look down at my handy work using the new upgrade I have for my helmets visor. While I still need the recon binoculars for sight upgrades, the visor itself now has a zoom function, and a targeting reticule for when I fire without using the sights on the gun. Of course it only shows me the areas the bullets will hit at and it gets larger the longer I hold the trigger, but it still helps with accuracy of hip firing.

I'm about to head back when Wisty contacts me.

"[Hey Margo, got a second?]" She asks over the comms.

"Sure, just killing time anyways," I reply is I sling my rifle over my shoulder.

"[Not over comms, meet me in the ambassador's office.]"

I am instantly curious. Something so important that it can't be said over a secured channel warrants plenty of attention. I start sprinting towards Garfunkel's. After 30 minutes I go through the front door and just about run over Byron.

"Out of the way Swain," I say as I continue running.

I get up the stairs and find Wisty waiting for me. I look around the room. The last time I was in here was when I was ambassador, and it had been remodeled since then. It now had computer screens covering an entire wall, each displaying data on what I assumed were Resistance operations and other Resistance bases. The other side had a locker and couch. The desk was the same, but had a newer and probably more powerful computer on it instead of the old one.

"You wanted to see me Wisty?" I ask her as I walk in.

"Margo, I want your opinion on this," she says to me before pulling out an envelope with the words 'the Allgood siblings' on it.

"What is that?"

"A letter saying that someone from the City of Progress wants to meet me and Whit to talk about taking down the One."

"…This seems too good to be true," I say.

"That's why I'm not doing it."

"I wasn't done yet. It seems too good to be true, but its an opportunity that we can't pass up."

"I'm not doing it Margo and that's final."

"Wisty, don't be stupid!" I shout at her. "This could end up being our chance to end this war, and you're deciding to ignore it!"

"No, Margo, this seems to much like a trap, it's too risky. We are not doing it. I don't want to talk about this again."

"Then why the hell did you even ask my opinion!" I shout as I leave.

"_Why isn't she doing this? If it ends up being a trap, she'll have my squ-…well…me and Vicky providing over-watch with our snipers,"_ I think to myself as I stomp past Whit. He raises an eyebrow at me before continuing on to where ever he was going to.

I almost ram into Maritza, who had just come from the team's locker room. I apologize quickly and head up to the roof. I get there and start kicking around random bits of rubble and shouting into the air. Maritza comes up to see what's going on.

"Hey, you ok _amiga_?" she asks me.

"Not really, Wisty is being a moron about some really useful intel she got," I reply.

"What is it?"

"A possible deserter of the NO is saying that he or she has intel that could help beat the One, and she isn't doing anything with it."

"…You know, I can kind of understand her hesitation about this."

"I know, I know. If it ends up being a trap…"

"Yeah. But you do have a point, the pay off is worth the risk."

"I know, and Vicky and I would be there if things get FUBAR," I say as I sit down.

"Well then explain that to her," Maritza said as she sat down next to me.

"I will just give me a minute."

"Alright, but don't take to long, or you may not be able to change her mind," Maritza says as she leaves.

I stay sitting there, looking at the horizon for another minute before deciding to go and see if Wisty had changed her mind. I head down stairs and go back into the office. I pass by Vicky and tell her to be ready to leave. I go inside to see Wisty sitting there with a bored expression, and bandages on her arm. She looks at me and smiles.

"Hey, Wisty, got a minute?" I ask. I look over at one of the screens to see a casualty count. Luckily, or unluckily, it's more Joes than Resistance.

"Margo! What's up?" she asks me.

"Look, I know you said you didn't want to talk about it again, but I thought-…" I try to say before Wisty interrupts me.

"Not _this_ again. I already told you, it's too risky. I'm _not_ going to authorize it."

"But it'll be on _our turf_! And Vicky and I will be there to protect you."

"Everything about it smells like a New Order trap, Margo. I said no, and I meant it."

"AAARGH! You're so fucking stubborn!" I yell before I walk off.

"Look who's talking!" she yells back.

Whit moves out of my way as I go through the door.

"Hey, Margo, What's new?" he asks me.

"Your sister is such a pain in the ass." I say as I keep walking.

"Whoa, whoa. I said _new_," he says before going into the office.

I manage to calm myself down as I walk back to the roof. I go into the team room and grab my sniper and radio first. As I leave, I pass by Byron and think about something. I turn back to him.

"Hey Byron, if Wisty says she wants to see me, I'll be on the roof," I tell him before slinging my rifle over my shoulder.

I get to the roof and pull out my rifle. I start setting up my position and then load practice rounds into the sniper. All of which only takes half a minute for me. I turn on the radio and switch it to Anarchy's station. At that time, it just finishes one song that I didn't have the chance to name, and starts playing Perfect Life by Red.

I look through the scope and activate the holograms. Suddenly, multiple NO Troopers appear, each of them outlined in red. I take aim at the one hiding behind a partially destroyed wall and pull the trigger. As usual, the sniper gives out a loud boom, and a large, though dampened to being small, recoil. The hologram disappears in an explosion of pixels, indicating a fatal hit. I shoot at the next one, but this one disappears in a shower of sparks, indicating a shot that would sever a limb, but the Trooper would still be alive. I keep doing this for ten minutes before Byron comes up.

"Hey, Margo," He calls as I start getting up.

"Let me guess, Wisty changed her mind," I say as I turn toward him.

"Yeah…wait what?" he asks as we head downstairs. We find Wisty grabbing a pair of recon binoculars and a Nova from the main armory. I don't see Vicky anywhere, but decide to wait for a bit.

"So, finally changed your mind?" I ask with a smirk.

She rolls her eyes before waving us to follow. I look around for Vicky, but still can't find her anywhere.

"I thought Vicky was coming to?" Wisty said. I shrugged and kept looking around for a minute, but still didn't see her.

"_We'll just have to go without her,"_ I think to myself. "Guess she's not coming. Let's go."

We start walking towards the meeting place, an old library that was two miles away from Garfunkel's. We travel through the sewers most of the way there. For the most part Byron had kept his mouth shut, but he eventually complained about one thing.

"Why couldn't we take one of the trucks?" he asks as I look around for an exit. I spot one a few feet ahead of us and start walking towards it.

"Because if this does turn out to be a trap, I don't want them to see us coming from a mile away," Wisty replies to him.

"Trap? All right, you know what? Maybe now would be a good time for someone to fill me in on what the hell we're even doing?"

"Do you want the long or short version?" I ask him as I climb out of the sewer.

"Short."

"Wisty may have found someone with intel on how to take down the One, and I helped arrange a meeting. That's where we're going now," I say to him as I stop.

I pull out my rifle and look through the scope. I see our informant standing alone, and I switch it to thermal mode. Again, I only see him.

"He's alone," I say after slinging my rifle back over my shoulder.

"Ok, let's see what he's got for us. But stay sharp. At the slightest sign of trouble, we bolt. No heroics," Wisty says. I nod as we start making our way toward him. As we get closer, he looks up at us and continues to stand there, unmoving.

"Okay, I'm here. This better be good," Wisty says to him.

"Stranger in a trench coat. Yeah, this isn't suspicious or anything," Byron whispers to me sarcastically. I keep my hand near my rifle, ready to quickly pull it out if this goes south.

"You must be Wisteria Allgood," the man says.

"Yeah, so talk. And make it quick," Wisty says to him.

"Very well then, young lady. My name is Henry Evans. I've recently come across an ancient book of spells of powerful nature. One incantation, in particular, purports to strip away all magical powers from a practitioner of the arts. Permanently," Henry says. This gets my attention, but I still keep an eye out. "I wish to put this book in possession of you and your brother, so that you can cast this spell on the One Who is the One, expunge his magical powers, and depose him as leader of the New Order."

"Oh really?" Wisty questions. I smile at that.

"_Good, she knew better than to instantly believe this,"_ I think to myself.

"And how is it that you came across such an artifact, Mr. Evans?" Wisty asks him.

"Simple, my dear," he says as he opens his coat, revealing the uniform of a Councilor. "It's because I work for the One."

I pull out my pistol, my hands moving faster then my brain. "Wisty, run! I'll take care of this assassin," I say as he holds up his hands.

"Margo, no! It's ok," Wisty says as she stands in between me and him.

"Wisty, two things. One: never stand between someone with a gun, who is planning on using it, and the person they plan on shooting. And two: he isn't just some New Order lackey, he's from the Council of Ones." I say to her as I keep my pistol aimed at him.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either. But don't you think that if this really was a trap, they'd have attacked by now?" She says to me. I lower my pistol. "We've come this far, let's hear him out."

"Thank you Wisteria," he says to her.

"Call me Wisty, and pick up the pace, I don't like standing out here, exposed."

"Of course. Your companion is correct; I do occupy a lofty position. The One Who Bans Books, to be precise. I know what you must think of my occupation, it suffice it to say, it's a long story best saved for another time. I only mention it because it is the very nature of my job that allows me to come across a great many books. That is how I came to know of the artifact."

"So do you have this book?" Wisty asks as I notice a flash of light from a sniper scope on a building across the street.

I'm about to shout a warning when I get a message on my phone. I take it out and see that it's from mom. I open it and read the message.

"[Next time, tell me that he's an informant kiddo,]" her message reads.

"[Sorry, I almost shot him too if that makes it any better,]" I reply.

"[…just a bit,]" her next massage reads, "[I'll stay here for a while longer to see what happens.]"

"[Thanks mom,]" I reply as I turn my attention back to the conversation between Henry and Wisty.

"As for me I need to return to my office, before my absence is noted and suspicions raised," he says as he starts walking into the library. "Farwell for now he says as he disappears through a wall.

"He's a curve!" Wisty shouts.

"And here I had him pegged as a straight and narrow," Byron says as I urn around.

"C'mon, let's head back to Garfunkel's before our luck runs out," I say as we start heading back to the sewer.

**Me: Well that's all for now.**

**Byron: So how will Katia react to Margo?**

**Me: You mean Margo and Arcee. Anyways, first time I'm saying this in a while, VR Commando ATA out.**

**Margo: When was the last time you said that?**


End file.
